1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing technique that displays a plurality of still images as smooth movie.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventionally known technique sequentially reproduces frame-by-frame a plurality of still image frames which are photographed by an electronic camera, with the operation of a frame step button by the user (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 9-116852 and the like).
Incidentally, the present inventor has considered realizing fine movie reproduction by using the plural still image frames which are continuously photographed as his or her material. When such a function is realized, images stored as the still images can be disclosed as movies in electronic albums or websites on the Internet, which makes image appreciation even more enjoyable.
Moreover, when the plural still image frames are reproduced as a movie image by a image editing software or the like, it is possible to view a vast number of still images in a short period of time. Additionally, it is also possible to quickly find a desired still image from the vast number of the still images by this movie reproduction.
In such a movie reproduction, approximately 18 to 30 image frames per second are generally necessary in order to display smooth motion like in films or television programs.
Meanwhile, when the above-described electronic camera performed still-image photographing, its photographing intervals were approximately 2 to 8 frames per second, even with a continuous photographing mode whose speed is relatively high. When the still images having such photographing intervals were simply reproduced frame-by-frame, motion of the images became awkward and hence fine movie reproduction was difficult.
Further, still images are often photographed by controlling image blurring so as to be suitable for still image appreciation. When the still images with less image blurring are simply reproduced frame-by-frame, a linkage of motion is hardly established between the images and movie reproduction becomes awkward.